Metamorphosis
by reset.it.all
Summary: Odd and Yumi must adapt to life in the other's body. Ulrich gets caught in the crossfire. Starts at the beginning of "A Fine Mess" but quickly diverges from that plot.
1. Kindling

**Author's Note: I'm really excited about where I want this story to go. I think I'm going to put my other story on hold for now while I explore this one further. Please R&R as I'm still new to writing! :)**

Odd's Perspective

The door of the Scanner opened, and my whole body ached. Nothing unusual, I always felt this way after being devirtualized (especially when a Megatank hit me at close range), but it was nonetheless still unpleasant.

I first noticed something was off when I took my first step out of the Scanner. I completely lost my balance after only two steps, and I crashed to the floor pathetically. Ulrich, who had been devirtualized early in the mission by a particularly stealthy Megatank (I never really understood how a Megatank could be stealthy, but this one managed somehow), was rushing over to me, making sure I was okay after I fell. He propped me up, leaning me into his arms and chest. This struck me as a bit odd, though completely enjoyable; I had always liked Ulrich, though he never knew it, and I always felt happy being close to him.

What was most peculiar, though, was that he always did this when Yumi was woozy after a particularly harsh devirtualization.

"I'm fine, I just lost my balance, that's all," I assured him, but then I had a sudden short intake of breath. My voice was higher and softer. Before I could put too much thought into this, something truly shocking happened.

At this moment, another scanner opened, and when I saw what was inside, I screamed.

I was standing in the Scanner, blonde and purple hair, purple clothes, vacant expression - a perfect copy. I thought this might be one of Xana's newest tricks.

As I stood up to confront the imposter, I looked down to see all black covering my body. I examined myself further and noticed that I had grown a few inches taller, developed rather large breasts, and felt a certain emptiness between my legs. When I made these realizations, I started to feel fear.

At this moment, I directed my gaze toward the Odd standing in the scanner, then back at my own new body, in quick succession. After a few seconds of whipping my head back and forth like a cartoon character, I noticed that the Odd in the Scanner was looking at me and screaming his head off.

I didn't understand what was going on, so the only logical thing to do was to confront the Odd in the elevator.

"Who are you?" I demanded of him.

"I'm Yumi! Or at least I was… who are you? Why do you look exactly like me? Jeremy, what's going on?" The Odd claiming to be Yumi said all of this very quickly, in my voice and in tears.

Jeremy's voice boomed throughout the room, "Umm… I think something went wrong with the rematerialization program. Yumi, Odd, are you both there?"

"I'm here, but there's another me here claiming to be Yumi, and I think I'm Yumi now," I rambled, beginning to put two and two together.

Ulrich was looking thoroughly confused at this point, though that was nothing compared to what I felt. Was I now Yumi? Or was I still myself, Odd, just in Yumi's body? That would make sense; I still felt like me, I guess.

Aelita came out of the last Scanner as the elevator door opened and Jeremey came into the Scanner room. I looked around at everyone, then down at my body again. I didn't understand how this happened…

Aelita looked at me. "Yumi, are you feeling all right? You look scared and confused."

I looked at her, apparently with an emotionless expression on my face. "But… I'm Odd…" I stammered. I looked at the Odd claiming to be Yumi again, and then down at my body again. I was wearing Yumi's classic all-black outfit, boots and all. Reality dawned on me.

Apparently, Jeremy and the Odd claiming to be Yumi were quicker on the uptake than the rest of us.

"Jeremy… have Odd and I switched bodies?" The Odd claiming to be Yumi, or rather, plain old Yumi stuck in my body, posed the question in a forced-calm voice.

"It appears so but I can't say for sure yet. Let's all get up to the Supercomputer to check it out," said Jeremy in a blank voice.

We all got in the elevator while Ulrich made general disbelieving remarks and exclamations. Aelita looked scared. Jeremy looked puzzled and determined. I felt a sudden hatred for Jeremy that I'd never experienced before. Even in this incomprehensible situation, he didn't seem to care about the participants; it was all just another code for him to crack, another complex, enigmatic problem for him to figure out. Yumi and I made it a point to not look at each other. I started at the buttons that controlled the elevator until we reached the upper floor.

Jeremy rushed back to the computer and began working at rapid speed. I never understood what was going on while he worked, but I stared at the screen anyway, hoping for some explanation as to why I now inhabited the body I had been so jealous of for so long.

The three of us who weren't Mr. and Mrs. Einstein stood silently for a few minutes while the other two tried to figure out what was going on. They were speaking computer, but I caught a few words I knew – "bug", "rematerialization", "failure".

Apparently Ulrich had had enough of just standing around. He began to pace the room intently. He looked hurt and confused, and I felt the sudden urge to hug him. I resisted.

At last, Jeremy explained, "Apparently there was a bug in the rematerialization program. When Odd and Yumi were devirtualized, the programs that assigned consciousness to physical form were swapped. Odd's consciousness was assigned to Yumi's body, and Yumi's consciousness was assigned to Odd's body. I have no idea how to fix this at the moment, but I'm going to spend the night here to see what I can find out. In the meantime, you guys are going to have to learn to live each other's lives; you'll have to go through tomorrow as each other." We all stood in disbelief, unable to say anything.

"Curiously, it appears as though your actual brains have swapped. If we have a pop quiz in math tomorrow, Odd's grade for the semester might just be saved after all," Jeremy added this in a joking tone.

At this moment, I flipped. "Do you think this is a joke, Jeremy? What about our parents? What about school? What about the fact that we don't know each other completely inside and out and probably won't be able to pass convincingly as each other?" I screamed all of this at him quickly, but no one seemed to cringe from my anger.

"Look, Y- Odd, I know this isn't easy for you. I'm going to work around the clock until I can fix it. You're just going to have to do the best you can for now, okay? You really don't have any other choice." I knew he was right, but I still hated how he was being so insensitive about this.

Ulrich and Aelita still hadn't said anything. Yumi was looking helplessly between me and Jeremy.

Dejectedly, Ulrich, Aelita, Yumi and I left the factory. Yumi and I began to discuss what our schedules were like for that night and for the next day.

As we were talking, and I knew this was a totally inappropriate and horrible thought to be having, I began to get some very naughty ideas about what I might like to do with Ulrich now that I finally was equipped the way he might like.


	2. Stirrings

**Author's Note: Please please please review! I'm not fishing for compliments; I sincerely want to know what you guys think of the story so far, your ideas for the future of the story, etc. I know this chapter isn't all that great, but I promise later chapters will be more interesting! **

Yumi's Perspective

As I lie in bed, after being slapped by the two girls Odd was dating at the same time and having Sissi talk down to me like she usually talks down to Odd, I wasn't sure if I was going to be able to get through the day tomorrow as Odd.

There was a pressing question occupying my mind at the moment: should I just try to act like Odd in case this gets resolved quickly, or should I be my own person and live how I want in my new body?

I knew for a fact that I was not going to be able to live up to people's expectations of Odd's corny, lame, hilarious humor. I knew that I wouldn't be able to force myself to flunk my exams to maintain Odd's bad grades (and I knew Odd wouldn't be able to maintain Yumi Ishiyama's above-average academic record…). I knew people would notice a lot of differences between the way Odd acted before and the way I was going to perform as Odd. I feared for the way people never took Odd seriously, and how I would become the class clown, a joke, needed for comic relief but never really a real human being.

I decided at this point that, if this issue does not get resolved within a few weeks' time, I was going to stop trying to be Odd. I was going to act the way I wanted, regardless of everyone's preconceived notions of Odd. I wasn't quite sure what that meant yet, but it probably wasn't a direct match to Yumi Ishiyama's established social identity.

I glanced over at the handsome boy lying on the bed on the other side of the room. His silky brown hair was already distinctly ruffled from contact with his pillow. The contours of his chiseled chest were visible through his tight white t-shirt. Surprisingly (and I only know this from the rare occasions where I was in this room at night when the boys were in their pajamas), Ulrich was not wearing his usual boxers; he was wearing more loose-fitting shorts. This struck me as interesting; it seemed as though he was concealing that part of his body more, now that he was sleeping next to me and not Odd.

To me, he had never looked more sexy.

I still wasn't totally sure how I felt about him, whether I was interested in him romantically or if I just valued our friendship more than most things. Or if I just thought he was hot. Which he was. Whoa.

I also didn't know for certain how he felt about me, though I was pretty sure he liked me as more than a friend.

I suddenly had a somewhat mischievous idea: I was feeling pretty worried, so I thought maybe Ulrich could comfort me. And contact with a cute guy who cared about me could never be a bad thing, right?

First, I knew I needed to start crying, so he would take pity on me and pull me into his arms like he used to do on occasion. I started thinking about some of the sad things that had happened to me: the bullying I'd suffered in elementary school for not being girly enough, the beatings I'd taken from my parents, watching helplessly as my parents beat Hiroki for trivial transgressions…

I pulled out my mobile and looked at myself in the camera. I looked past the weird hair and clothes and noticed that I had a very handsome face. This observation was only fleeting, though, because I realized that I wasn't crying even though I wanted to. This was strange; I was usually able to cry on demand. I probably just needed to dive deeper into my traumatic memories.

Waiting as Aelita deactivated the tower when her digital envelope was altered, causing her temporary deletion… Watching Lyoko and Ulrich fade away as I was immersed into the digital sea, and deleted, along with the seemingly millions of years I spent alone wandering through the internet before Jeremy rematerialized me…

Okay, apparently fear worked better than sadness. There were a lot of tears falling now, and my breathing was coming in gasps. The deep-sounding resonance of my gasps disturbed me (I still wasn't used to my new deep voice) and I started to cry even harder.

Apparently, I broke Ulrich out of his sleepy stupor; he looked at me (I must have looked so pathetic…), got up, and closed the distance between us. I noticed that he looked a bit awkward (well, more awkward than usual, considering this was Ulrich).

He sat down next to me, but didn't make any further moves. I looked up at him, sniffling.

"How did this even happen? This is just so weird… the things that are going through my head are just so weird and I don't know how to deal with it…" I explained. Understatement of the year.

He just nodded and continued looking at me.

"Can you give me a quick hug? I want something at least somewhat familiar, since everything else seems so alien right now…" I asked, longing for the buzz I got from his embrace, his scent, the feeling of his body against mine…

He scooped me up into his arms, warmth emanating from his body, and warming me to the core, at least a little bit. I snuggled my head into his chest and breathed in deep, immediately feeling the high. I snuggled in even more, and sat myself on his lap. We didn't fit together as well as before, this didn't feel quite right… then I realized what was blocking the way we usually fit together.

He shifted his weight a bit to avoid contact with my member, but he still held me close. As he shifted, I felt his genital region brush against my leg, and I felt a rush of excitement. I was surprised though, when I felt a certain stiffness between my legs, rather than the feeling I used to get when I got this close to Ulrich.

I suddenly felt decidedly embarrassed and shifted the lower half of my body away from him, but left my head and back leaning into his chest.

We sat this way for a while, Ulrich still saying nothing. I cried into his chest a bit, until I started to get alarmed. Why did he refuse to speak? Was he mad at me? Did he hate me now or something? No, no way, I mean, look at the way we were sitting…

"Ulrich, is something wrong? I know this is weird, but it's still me, I'm still Yumi, right?" I asked, suddenly wondering if the answers to these questions were as painfully obvious as I was implying.

"I just don't really know what to think. Obviously I've never had something like this happen before. I know it's still you, Yumi, I think I'm just not adjusted to the way you look yet," he explained. I breathed a sigh of relief and nodded. I certainly wasn't used to my new appearance yet, either.

"I think I'm gonna go to sleep. You should too, you're gonna need all your energy to pass convincingly as Odd," he added, joking yet with an obvious undertone of seriousness. I nodded again.

"Good night, Ulrich. I hope you'll keep an eye on me tomorrow, to make sure I don't get into too much trouble."

"Of course, Yumi. Good night." He went back to his bed and seemed to fall asleep quickly. I lie awake for a while, worrying, wondering how crazy the next day would be, and endlessly trying to extract some deeper meaning from Ulrich's penultimate words to me: _I'm just not adjusted to the way you look yet…_


End file.
